Building a Brand New School at Zero Cost

Three Rivers Academy in Surrey needed a major upgrade, but they had no direct funding from local or central government. Mark Saint from Building Schools for Nothing shares their process of planning and delivering a state-of-the-art school that is rejuvenating the community.

Three Rivers Academy in Hersham, Surrey, opened the doors of their new state-of-the-art school building to staff and students in February 2018. The high-quality, spacious accommodation, including the amazing sport, drama, dance and music facilities, was designed to inspire 21st-century learning and allow students to perform at the highest level.

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      string(5714) "� 21 Century Schools  Volume 4:1Project managementwww.teachingtimes.com� Volume 4:1  21 Century SchoolsThe demand for off-site construction continuesto increase in every sector. There are morespecialist contractors in the UK than everbefore. It is therefore essential when you select anoff-site partner to evaluate the most appropriate andeffective solution for each project.School managers should consider the contractor’sexperience in the schools sector, how to achievehigh standards of architecture, the contractor’scommitment to customer service, their consistency ofdelivery on programme and to the agreed cost – andhow the impact of construction on the environmentcan be minimised.10 Tips for Selecting an Off-siteSpecialist1. Assessing an off-site partnerIf a project is a major scheme, does the contractorhave the capacity required, when you need it?Look at their financial stability, R&D resources,health and safety record, technical back-up andproject management expertise.Does the contractor have a zero tolerance policyin place for defects?2. Look at the contractor’s trackrecordThe off-site contractor should have relevantexperience in your sector, and be familiar withall the operational and technical issues and yourspecialist requirements. Talk to other local authoritiesand schools that have used the system and visitcompleted buildings. Always take up references.3. How much of the contractor’sbusiness is from repeat customers?This is a key indicator of a company’s track recordfor delivery on time, its commitment to quality andcustomer service. It should be in excess of 50 per cent– and ideally around 70 per cent.4. What percentage of projectshave been delivered on time and onbudget?Time and cost overruns are still a major concern forschool building projects. Off-site construction shouldsignificantly improve time and cost predictability-and reduce your risk.Ask for statistics that show what percentage ofbuilding projects have been delivered on time andon budget, ideally over the past five years. This will bea good indicator of a contractor’s performance, andallow you to make a comparison between off-sitespecialists – helping you to further reduce risk.As a benchmark, my firm Yorkon increased thenumber of its projects delivered on time and onbudget from 94 per cent to 99 per cent in 2008.5. Independent approvalsLook for independent endorsements and approvals,and ask to see the certificates for verification. Someexamples to consider are:Quality – ISO 9001 certification should be inplace for the whole process, not just selectedelementsFire – LPCB certification for fire resistanceAcousticsInsuranceBBA (British Board of Agrément) accreditationLABC approval6. Assess the contractor’s approachand commitment to sustainabilityThe use of off-site construction can help you achieveyour school’s sustainability objectives. Some areas toconsider in your choice of contractor are:Evidence of year-on-year improvements inwaste and carbon emission reductions in themanufacturing processDoes the contractor have further energy savingtargets in place?Does the off-site specialist hold ISO 14001accreditation? This is the internationally-recognised standard for reducing impact on theenvironmentIs the off-site contractor’s environmental policy inaccordance with the Sustainability Charter issuedby the Major Contractors Group?Does the off-site specialist encourage the use of■■■■■■■■■■■The top ten tipsfor choosing an off-site contractorOff-site construction soundslike a gift from heaven – youget a brand new schoolwith none of the disruptionof building work. But makesure you’re choosing areliable contractor – withthese top ten tips fromDavid Johnson.Bewdlwy school, which was built off-siteProject managementwww.teachingtimes.com� 21 Century Schools  Volume 3:4Project Managementwww.teachingtimes.comrenewable energy and low carbon technologies?Design options should include passive ventilation,rainwater harvesting, ground and air source heatpumps, and biomass heatingDoes the contractor have the resources andexpertise to value engineer the design of yourbuilding to maximise energy efficiency over itslife cycle?Request and compare test results achieved forcompleted buildings to assess the air permeabilityand ventilation performance for each buildingsystem. Do the results meet or exceed BuildingRegulations Part L and Part F?Is the building system future proof? The teachingspaces should be easy to reconfigure and anyinternal walls should not be load-bearing, in orderto meet the school’s changing needs over time.7. What, if any, warranties apply tothe modular system?A comprehensive five-year product warranty to coverthe external fabric of the building and a 20-yearstructural warranty for the load-bearing elementsshould come as standard for all modular buildings.All warranties should be in addition to independentcertification from the BBA.8. Look for best valueEnsure you are comparing cost estimates that arelike for like – and that you are looking for best valuefor your organisation. Look for reduced risk, fastercompletion, lower running costs, lower maintenanceand longevity.■■■9. How will the projectbe managed?D o e s  t h e  c o n t r a c t o r  h a v eadequate site supervision inplace? How flexible is the off-sitespecialist? Can work on site betimed to coincide with schoolholidays? Is the manufacturerwilling to work with your teamor project architect on designdetailing to achieve your aestheticand practical requirements?10. Monitor andevaluateFollowing"
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Learning Spaces

The top ten tips for choosing an off-site contractor

22 Sep 2009

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      string(5666) "Portfolio Sketchmicro-schools are a very different vision of what school can be; tiny and human-scale attended by fewer than 150 pupils; often one-room schools with mixed-age classrooms; invariably founded by outsiders interested in small batch experimentation in innovative pedagogies. And they’re springing up all over the world. It’s a story that should catch the eye of every educator, non-educator and parent in possession of even the slightest hint of the entrepreneurial spirit, because if the economic theory of disruptive innovation is correct, this little revolution could have a significant impact. The Lean School Start-Up“We’re running lean,” says Jake Thompson, founder of Heroes Academy. “Everything to get us to day one cost $27,000. And with 10 pupils on roll, I’m already at breakeven,” Heroes Academy epitomises the lean start-up trope so familiar to Silicon Valley’s tech entrepreneur scene; start small – test and fail fast – gain customer insight – iterate – improve. It is exactly that path that founder Thompson has taken with Heroes Academy – his own version of Acton Academy, a rapidly expanding global micro-school network of 80 start-up schools. ‘There are so many theories out there in education that I know so little about,” says Thompson. “But I do know how to test and how to iterate. We’re testing thousands of different things. There’s no dialled-in strategy. We’re trying to gather great information – bringing in great ideas and testing them.”Set in a 2000sqft office space in a leafy midtown business park and close to outdoor space, Heroes Academy’s open plan space can accommodate up to 20 pupils in a mixed-age environment. Rent is an affordable $2500 a month and Thompson has kept the lease purposely short, confident that he will outgrow the space within two years. Interiors are similarly simple. His second in command and lead guide, Kara, an expert in Reggio Emilia methods, ensured that it was designed as a comfortable environment to learn and to be. “I’m not great at design and looked to Kara for her advice a lot. But I did know that I needed a space where parents said, “Hey, this is cool!” when they walked in. I see the space as just another tool for learning, but I did want it to be modular and modern. ”They painted the walls an inviting white and warm, bold blue with yellow detailing to define different zones. A visit to Ikea for table, chairs, modular bookcases, beanbags and the all–important discussion rug, and the duo were set. After 11 months of planning, the doors opened in September 2017. But why would any parent in their right mind commit their child to a brand new school that was running lean? Thompson is very clear. It’s all about the culture. Get the culture rightCulture is the engine that drives Acton Academy’s impressive growth. Whilst attractively low barriers to entry allow owners to start rapidly and cost effectively (affiliates pay a one-off $10,000 joining fee and 1% royalty of annual gross revenues), Acton’s well-honed culture aligns so effectively with the values of early adopter parents and entrepreneurial owners that it can transcend the need for “full stack” school start ups, with their associated capital costs affordable only to philanthropist, venture capitalist or the state. “(Our parents) are classic early adopters who don’t care if we’re in a normal office building because they have such strong needs,” Thompson explains. “They’re willing to scrape by with us as we grow. Several have left some of the most prestigious schools to come here. It might have felt like a risk. But I would argue that once they get to know our model, the risk is staying in a traditional model.” Acton tackles education for the 21st Century head on. But whilst buzzwords so familiar to educators (agency, collaboration, grit and determination, metacognition, self-regulation) are writ large into Acton’s approach, they are packaged in a customer-friendly way with specific references carefully avoided. Instead, founders Jeff and Laura Sandefer embrace what Simon Sinek would call, their “why”. “We do not consider ourselves as part of the education reform movement,” Jeff Sandefer explains. “While we respect those trying to reform education, our goal is for the Acton network to serve entrepreneurial parents who believe their children are capable of far more than anyone imagined. What matters most to us is the belief that each person who enters our doors is a genius who deserves to find a calling that will change the world. A belief in ‘heroes on a Hero’s Journey’ can be applied to any community of any size.”The Hero’s Journey in question typically describes the classical narrative of a hero’s struggle that has to occur before triumph and enlightenment. So too do Acton’s ‘heroes’ embark on a similar pathway, empowered to take total control of their own learning in mixed-aged classrooms. This is an entirely learner-driven environment, inspired in part by Montessori, where ‘teachers’ become ‘guides’, skilled in Socratic discussion and favouring questions over doling out answers. The one or two guides stand to the side as much as possible while heroes employ grit to find the answer themselves. “We can have 30 students and one guide. It’s almost better with fewer adults,” adds Thompson.Curriculum is split between self-paced online learning for core skills such as maths and literacy"
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Innovative School Design

Small and mighty: a micro-school mini-revolution

3 Oct 2018

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      string(5779) "26 Century 21 Schools  Summer 2006The Campus  www.century21schools.com27www.century21schools.com   The Campus Summer 2006  Century 21 SchoolsAt the north end, the public enter a double heightatrium, containing a cyber café and giving access tothe library and flexible community rooms.  Between thisand the school accommodation, is a block containingthe sports hall, and dining/ main hall, well positionedfor use by the community out of school hours. Anotherdouble height atrium links these spaces to the rest of theschool accommodation, which again are divided intoexclusive space for either the primary or SEN schools,or shared spaces such as specialist teaching areas, ICTand, significantly, the staff room.One could imagine that getting the three uses tooperate together effectively and smoothly could turninto something of a nightmare, with territorial disputesarising on a regular basis.  However this has been verysuccessfully avoided, by creating a structure that allowsthe involvement of all key stakeholders. As one watchesthe buildings change from mixed use with two schoolsduring the day to varied community use after 3.30pm,there is a seamless transition as new activities start upin the ‘school’ areas.Significantly, the project was led from the LeisureDepartment of the Council, ensuring that the vision ofit being a unified community resource was maintainedthroughout its development and realisation. Onceoccupied, it took a year to establish a Memorandum ofAgreement and a Campus Management Committee,bringing together all the stakeholders includingcommunity representatives, and creating a mechanismto operate the pooled management fund. The buildingis managed by a Campus Manager, again employedby the Leisure Department, and on a day to day basis,problems are resolved by nitty gritty meetings betweenthis Manager and the two headteachers.Herons’ Moor was a brand new primary school thatstarted with only 69 pupils in temporary accommodationon a site opposite the school. When they moved into thenew building a year later, it had risen to 150, and nowevery classroom is in use as the numbers rise towardsthe capacity of 425, a measure of the school’s successand popularity. Julie Fox was appointed as headteacherwhen the design was fairly advanced, but she was ableto influence some of the detailed design.Bay Tree, the SEN school for 67 pupils aged from3 to 19 with severe learning leaning difficulties, wasalready established on another site. This enabled theircharismatic headteacher, Carol Penney, to be heavilyinvolved in the detailed design of the schools. Herclose involvement ensured that many of the complexdesign issues for a school catering for children witha wide range of disabilities have been satisfactorilyaddressed. Her only concern was that a few decisionsslipped through at meetings when she was on holiday,slightly compromising some aspects of the design.Apart from its success as extended schools, the schooldesign scores highly relative to many current designissues. Generally, the internal spaces have excellentdaylighting.  The classrooms mainly face south, and areprotected from excessive solar gain and glare by yellowsun blinds on the ground floor and brise soleils above.Although deep in plan, they have daylighting at the back,also providing through ventilation. The lower classroomsreceive daylighting down shafts from rooflights (see nextpage), but the downside of this arrangement is that thefirst floor classrooms are reduced in size, something thatthe headteachers regret.The building is managed by a CampusManager, again employed by theLeisure DepartmentExternally the building is welcoming and uninstitutional,with a mixture of steel, glass, timber and even naturalstone cladding on the front elevation. The roof is aningenious saw-tooth arrangement with north facingrooflights bringing daylight, with out sunlight, into thedeep plan areas, such as the halls and atria, as well asto the back of the classrooms. 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Learning Spaces

The Campus - Weston-Super-Mare

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      string(5775) "50 Learning Spaces  Volume 1:3Case Studywww.teachingtimes.com‘Lifestyle’ and ‘aesthetics’ are not necessarily words you seein a school prospectus but Avon Valley College is unusual. Itis an 11-18 Specialist Sports College with an Aesthetics Halland a £400,000 state of the art gym and dance facility whichis open to its eight feeder primary schools and to the wider communitytoo. Best of all, the gym has not cost the school a single penny and it isa model which is attracting a lot of attention from other schools.The gym at Avon Valley Sports College was supplied and equippedby two companies. Competition Line owns the gym and fitness brandLifestyle Fitness while Technogym is the sole supplier of gym equipmentto the Athlete’s Village for the Olympics 2012. The gym opened tothe public in January 2012 and is available for use by fee paying localresidents. They use it out of school hours – they can access the centrefrom 6am until school starts and from when school closes until 9pm. Itis also open 8am-5pm Saturday to Sunday.Carl Gripenstedt explainshow Avon Valley SportsCollege benefited from astate-of-the-art gym anddance studio built withno capital outlay from theschool!Making schoolbudgets gofurther51 Volume 1:3  Learning SpacesCase Studywww.teachingtimes.comFacilitiesAvon Valley Sports College is situated just three milesfrom Stonehenge and is very well equipped. Thereare five computer suites, performing art and musicfacilities, up to the minute science laboratories andtwo administration blocks with a meetings suite.  Theschool also offers vocational training in construction,hairdressing, beauty therapy and agriculture and hasits very own industrial standard garage where youngpeople can learn the skills of car maintenance. Inaddition to the Physical Education suite, there is amulti-use games area, tennis and basketball courts,playing fields and tracks and a courtyard cafe forrefreshments.The Principal, Mark Avoth, said he welcomed theopportunity to get a first class new resource whichwould boost the general health of his students andattract the local community. ‘We wanted to createa campus where parents and carers would feelcomfortable using the facilities.”The gym has new flooring and lighting andTechnogym cardio vascular and resistance stations. Itcontains six treadmills, six cross trainers, a multipowerunit to build lower and upper limb strength, ninebikes, two crossovers, a selection of free weightsand functional cable resistance machines. A chestpress, shoulder press, pectoral machine, verticaltraction, leg press, leg curl, leg extension, seatedrow, abdominal machine, two concept 2 rowers andeleven spin bikes.Not only is it a focus for healthy lifestyles andimproving fitness, Avon Valley also uses the gym toboost the curriculum. The students work towardsGCSE PE, the BTec Sport qualifications and A LevelSport Science and some of the units can now becompleted in the fitness centre. Technogym’s BikeMed product, originally designed for rehabilitationand sports training purposes, comes with its ownsoftware which collects data on the user. Thisfeedback is really useful for young people to helpthem evaluate and improve their performance.  Theycan also export the data for use in other subjects suchas maths and science.The planning processAndy Davidson, Public Sector Manager at Technogym,was heavily involved in the planning and setting upof the new gym at Avon Valley Sports College. Heexplained the different stages. The first step is to takea long and critical look at what space a school has.Not many will be able to afford a brand new buildingbut some schools, especially modern ones, may havebig empty voids above existing spaces. Sometimesit might be a case of installing a mezzanine floor inan atrium.The second stage is to consider the demographicsof the local area. Is anyone else providing gym facilitiesin the immediate vicinity? What is the competition?The working party will need to discuss with seniormanagement, staff and governors the issues ofopening up the school building to the community.“Sometimes we find that schools are already bringingthe community in to use the sports facilities,” saidAndy. “This is an advantage as staffing is likely to bein place already and the school has almost certainlydevoted time to discussing safeguarding issues.”After this comes the contract stage where oftenschools will want to clarify or renegotiate certainelements before the building work can begin.  Inthe case of Avon Valley Sports College, CompetitionLine managed the whole process and provided thearchitects. Currently they are putting their state ofthe art gym into some 20 schools in England. Theyhave their own stand-alone clubs which are highlysuccessful large commercial enterprises but theyare balancing their portfolio with local authority andschool projects.The Avon Valley Sports CollegeprojectThe school was lucky as it had a suitable space whichcould be converted and would not involve extensivebuilding work. There was a dance studio which alsodoubled as a trampoline space. Avon Valley had justhad a new sports hall built and decided to relocatethe trampoline area there as the ceilings were higher.This freed up a space suitable for conversion to aLifestyle gym.A key consideration was energy costs.  The collegehad to consider issues such as power, water and otherservices. “The school was one of the pilot schools forthe Low Carbon Collaborative partnership in Wiltshireso green issues were high on our agenda. Before thegym opened the school did not take bookings during 52 Learning"
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Learning Spaces

LS1.3_p50-54_Making school budgets go further

26 Sep 2012